Cassie's Tale
by Daishi Prime
Summary: Complete. A lone Jedi in the Old Republic trying to get her charge to Coruscant in one piece, in the face of a Hutt vengeance conspiracy.
1. Chapter 1

Cassie's Tale

By: Daishi Prime

Disclaimer – I used to wish I owned Star Wars. Do now more than ever (I & II would never have happened). But I don't own it, so don't sue me. As sa side note, this also applies to The Last Starfighter, references to which appear later.

Era Note: for those of you who follow the Expanded Universe, this is set the Old Republic, an indeterminate number of decades prior to Palpatine's appearnce.

- 1 -

"So, you _aren't_ a Jedi?"

Cassie laughed slightly, shaking her head. She was sitting at the bar of an open-air cantina, glass in one hand, multi-tool spinning in the other, leaning back on the bar itself. Stretching out from the cantina, for miles, was a dusty starport, covered in a combination of tramp freighters and cargo shuttles. "'Bout time you asked direct-like, but that's a rather more complicated question than you think, neighbor."

Her current companion, a spacer to judge by his worn coverall, faded flight patches, and fighter skull-tattoo raised one eyebrow over his thick sun-goggles. "It shouldn't be. Are you in the Order, or not? You carry a lightsaber, after all, don't the Jedi get a little annoyed by that?"

She continued smiling, "Dunno. I haven't met a Jedi in years, and he _gave_ me a lightsaber. After teaching me how to use it."

"So you are a Jedi."

"Yeah, by my standards."

He stared at her for a moment, then asked, "So how come you're floating around out here at this nowhere spaceport? Aren't you Jedi supposed to be cruising the high roads and what not?"

"I'm a Jedi _Knight_, the old-fashioned kind. I bring justice and peace wherever I can. I can't afford to do it for free, usually, but I cost a lot less than some merc, for most jobs. And some thing's I'll do gratis without even being asked. As for those idle lay-abouts and pampered lap-dogs back on Coruscant, the 'order' you mentioned, I have no idea what they think. Don't really care, either. I have more important things to do with my life and power than play politics and contemplate my navel."

"Whoa, harsh," the spacer commented, leaning back slightly.

"Harsh universe," she replied. After a moment, she grimaced, "Besides, the Order and I have history, though I doubt they realize it. Bad history, that I would just as soon not remember. I avoid them, they don't know about me, and I do some good out here where the Jedi fear to tread."

"I wouldn't say that. I've seen a couple of Jedi out here."

"Oh, sure, near the people in power. But I've been in the Outer Rim for my entire life, and I've only ever seen two Jedi. Myself, and my master. I'm not worried. If a Jedi has a problem with me, they'll talk first, and even after that they'll leave me be. I may not be some high and mighty master sitting on a throne on Coruscant, but I know the Code, I have the skills, and act in the interests of others, always."

He nodded, "Yes, I can see what you're saying. Except for your opinion of the Order, you sound like the other Jedi I've met. I guess I add you to the list then. But tell me, what are you doing here? Minari is a peaceful world. The King is fair, the politicians less corrupt than elsewhere, the police honest, and the populace happy enough."

"I brought in some pirates a few weeks ago. I got a feeling that sticking around would be a good idea. So I did, and this morning got a call. I have a meeting with a client shortly, good job. Short, simple, solid pay but not so much I think they're hiding something. It'll take me Core-ward, but I can accept that. Change is good, and all."

"Sounds interesting."

Before he could ask something else, Cassie mentioned, "I've got a question for you, neighbor."

"Ask away," he replied, "only fair, seeing as how many I've asked you. Sorry, I'm just an inveterate people-watcher. Every port I seem to find new stories from new people."

"No problem," Cassie answered with a smile, "I don't have any secrets. I just wondered. It's not exactly a bright sunny day, so what's with the glasses?"

"Ah," the spacer answered, "I was born without eyes, blind. People find the resultant space disturbing, and I could never afford cybernetics, so the goggles make a good compromise."

"You look to get around fairly well."

"Practice. I'm older than I look, and I've always relied on my ears and nose to find things. I never had eyes, so I've never missed them."

Cassie grunted, "good 'nough. Ran into a guy a couple years ago, 'bout your size and look, except he had these nasty red eyes, weird slit pupils. Got away, too, the damn pirate."

"Someone'll catch up to him," the spacer replied, "pirates always get caught or killed. But I'm no pirate. I'm just a spacer."

Cassie was about to reply, when a chime at her belt caught her attention. She pulled out the comm, activated it, and indtroduced herself. A moment later, she nodded, hung up, and looked the spacer over. "Sorry, neighbor, that's my contract. They're ready to go, which means..."

"You have to. Pleasure to meet you, Cassie."

"And you, Jorun," she replied, paying off her drink before sliding off her stool and striding off into the warren of the port environs.


	2. Chapter 2

Cassie's Tale

- 2 -

Half an hour after leaving the spacer cantina, she settled into a chair at another, more upscale establishment. Her spacer coverall was a little out of place, but her finely dressed company compensated. The man sitting across from her was tall, even accounting for the fact that _everyone _was tall compared to her. He was very well dressed, in fine robes of deep blue silk and gold weave. He was impeccably groomed, with the currently fashionable wire-thin mustache, and long hair pulled back to flow loose down his back. To her surprise, he did not seem the least bothered by her work-a-day appearance.

"Lord Shudin," she greeted him, settling into place.

"Jedi Lorus," he replied politely, "welcome, and my thanks for your time."

"I live to serve," she replied, grinning slightly.

"Indeed. Have you had a chance to review my proposal?"

Cassie nodded, remembering. "Certainly. It appears straight forward enough. An unidentified 'someone', probably Hutts, given your system's recent troubles with them, has threatened to kill Prince Hanjin during his return to the Firrenze Academy, on Coruscant. As their previous attempt killed his previous full-time bodyguard, you wish me to escort him to the Academy, where their security will take over. You already have a false itinerary utilizing a royal yacht, and have arranged for the Prince to travel incognito aboard a civilian liner."

"Most excellent," Shudin commented, "and do you have any reservations?"

"Only one. Does the liner have a hangar deck, or a cargo bay large enough for a starfighter? I don't want to leave the _Spiral Dancer_ anywhere. Bad things will happen if I do," she waved her hand to clear any sense of threat to the words, "just a feeling, Lord Shudin, but I learned long ago to listen to these internal prompts. The Force is, at its best, subtle. Other than that, the pay is good, the job clear, and the threats revealed to the best of your knowledge."

"The liner is quite spacious," Shudin stated, "and carries a small wing of starfighters for defense. Space can be arranged aboard her hanger deck for your craft."

"In that case, Lord Shudin, you have a deal," Cassie told him, extending her hand. When he took it, she continued, "Prince Hanjin will reach Coruscant and Firrenze Academy alive, my word as a Jedi on it."

"You have my thanks, Jedi, and those of my King. Knowing one of your abilities is involved will settle His Majesty's mind greatly. The liner is named _Gallant Venture_, she is currently docked at Feydin High Station, and scheduled to depart tomorrow evening. The Prince is going aboard tomorrow afternoon, and we would appreciate it if you could meet him aboard?"

"Good enough," Cassie answered. "I'll fly _Spiral Dancer_ up to the station this afternoon and get her docked. If you would be so good as to let the _Gallant Venture_ know I'll be coming?"

"Certainly."

"Tomorrow, then," Cassie told him.

They shook hands again, and then she strolled out of the bar, headed for the starport again. _Spiral Dancer_ was parked in one of the open landing pads, far out on the expanse of paved ground where she had been able to land the fighter for free, and it would take her a while to reach it. She didn't notice the cloaked figure detach itself from the shadows and follow Lord Shudin as he walked in the opposite direction, towards the palace.


	3. Chapter 3

Cassie's Tale

- 3 -

Two days later, as the _Gallant Venture_ soared through hyperspace on its way into the Core Worlds, Cassie began wondering if she should have turned the job down. While the danger had so far failed to materialize, the headaches had mounted rather quickly.

The _Venture_ and her crew were not the problem, quite the contrary. The liner belonged to a passenger cartel which ran several such ships, and was more than used to accommodating private security arrangements. Indeed, Cassie had been introduced to the heads of five other security teams aboard, each guarding a different person or group. Space had been made available for her fighter, and the fighter had even been hooked up to the liner's umbilicals, allowing her to conserve her limited resources.

Even the other passengers and security were no problem. The other security types were more than happy to have a Jedi aboard, all of them assuming that she was someone they could all trust to be neutral. The passengers, for the most part, were content to treat her with the deep respect shown to most Jedi, or ignore her presence entirely, depending on their personal prejudices.

The problem was her charge. Prince Hanjin Tobin Ud Lars, firstborn and heir of King Rikos III of the Minari Confederacy, was a royal pain. He had apparently decided that, since he was returning to school after a month long holiday, he had condense as much partying and celebration into his remaining free time as possible. That she could have dealt with. The liner included a small casino, several lounges, theaters and clubs, which Hanjin was determined to sample each of them. Even that would not have been bad. Annoying, but deal-able.

What made the situation unbearable was the Prince's attitude towards her. He had come aboard with a valet and small escort from the palace, as well as Lord Shudin. Shudin introduced the two of them, and then departed with the escort. While the Prince's valet settled his (rather substantial) baggage in the suite reserved for them, the Prince apparently decided Cassie was a type escort other than a bodyguard.

"So, Cassie," he said, leaning over the arm of his chair to study her closely, a confident smile plastered over his too-handsome young face, "I was thinking of taking a swim. Care to join me? I understand there are private pools all over the ship..."

Cassie had settled for shaking her head, then replied, "The proper form of address is 'Jedi Lorus', Prince. If you wish to swim, feel free. I will remain on duty."

He had just laughed, and things had gone down hill from there. It took her a day to convince him she had been hired solely as security, and not as more entertainment. Even then, she had come close to pining him to a wall with the Force, before he gave up. At which time, her situation had become more difficult – Prince Hanjin took to avoiding her. He seemed to think it was some sort of game, getting away from her and forcing her to hunt him down. The _Gallant Venture_ was a large ship, if not space-station sized, and provided plenty of spaces to hide, even if you were determined to simultaneously have a wild time.

She was on another such hunt at present. The Prince had lost her in one of the casinos by the simple expedient of going to the bathroom, then ducking through the maintenance systems. Now, she was tracking him by the equally simple expedient of having her droid, Ace, track the marker she had placed in his pocket when they left the suite that morning. Rather than parade her mistake in front of the entire crew, she was following the staff passageways herself, towards the private club in the bow where he was currently debauching himself.

It was down one such corridor that she received her first warning of trouble. A figure in worn ship's coverall ducking into a side corridor. What caught her eyes were the goggles, and the tattoo on his shaven head, of a star fighter. It clicked immediately, as did the fact that no luxury liner would hire a tramp free-spacer like him, not and let him wander around with his own ship-suit.

She reached the hatch he vanished into, just in time to feel the ship lurch slightly. It wasn't something most of the passengers would have noticed, but Cassie was fairly sure she'd been born aboard ship, and the feel of a ship leaving hyperspace was quite distinct to her. She lurched, and for a moment her mind froze. They were still days out of Coruscant, and that was the _Gallant Venture_'s only stop. She stood there for a moment, and then a sharp jab of fear hit her, and she remembered Hanjin. Whatever was going on, she had to keep Hanjin out of it.

She kept to the staff corridors. Without the main corridors' need to keep the passengers entertained and aware of their own wealth, the staff corridors were both less cluttered, and more direct. She charged into the club just as the first alarm sounded, two minutes later. Silently, she thanked the Force for that favor, as the crowd was only just starting to panic when she reached Hanjin.

He looked at her in surprise when she grabbed his shoulder, hauling his attention away from the emergency flasher which had appeared in the ceiling. "Cass! What's going on?"

"Not our concern," she answered, "We're leaving." A quick visual check assured her that he was intact and decently attired, and then she hauled him behind her.

Hanjin cried out in surprise, probably not expecting someone as small as Cassie to be that strong, but managed to twist his way clear. "What? Leave? But Cass, the party's still going strong!"

She stopped when he got clear, turning to look at him, then sighed heavily. Reaching up, she grabbed his ear and twisted, bringing his head down to her own, ignoring his hissed protest. Whispering harshly, she snarled, "The ship dropped out of hyper a couple minutes ago, at least a day early. Those alarms mean someone's attacking the ship. That means that in about five minutes the entire population of this ship is going to panic. We have until then to get as close to the hanger deck as possible. After that, things are going to get messy. Now follow me, shut up, and run when I tell you."

She turned, relinquishing her grip on his ear only to grab the first article of clothing to come in reach. Unfortunately for her dignity, that proved to be his belt. Ignoring the catcalls from his friends, especially those referring to her child-like size, she hauled the still protesting prince out of the club, back into the crew passages. Once there, she saw the first sign of panic as a crewmen ran past with his arms full of a medical package and a bag full of his personal belongings.

She ignored the crewman to continue on. Reaching within her, she called upon the energies of the universe and felt the Force answer her call. Her body grew lighter, and she could almost _see_ the lines or probability stretching out ahead of her. Something out there tugged at her senses, a distortion, but after a quick determination that it was far away and unlikely to involve her or her charge, she ignored it completely.

They made it halfway to the hanger, with the Captain's broadcast request to 'please remain calm' behind them, before she found a problem she could not avoid. Where the staff corridors crossed primaries, they could see clear signs of others ignoring that warning, and after the first sight of wealthy fellow passengers fleeing down a passage, Hanjin ceased his own complaints, and she no longer had to haul him behind her.

She found herself with a choice. She came to a junction with the main corridors, and knew that if she followed them, she would have to risk the confusion therein. But down the service corridor, she knew trouble awaited her. The ship had shuddered a minute before, and the call had gone out announcing boarders, along with the Captain's admission of surrender. She knew that, either way, she would have to fight her way through the boarders. The question was, which way would be easier.

Hanjin decided her. Leaning over her in the corridor entrance, while she studied both passages, he jerked his chin at the service hatch across the way. "There's a shortcut to the hanger down that corridor. Hundred meters on, there's a ventilation main. It leads to the hanger, another forty, fifty meters down. I found it last night with Miga, when we went to the..." he actually blushed, then concluded, "ah, never mind. Shortcut, like I said."

"Good enough," she muttered, "stay behind me." She pulled her light-saber, but left it dark. All the better to surprise whatever trouble they ran into.

Trouble proved to be a pair of boarders. Fitted out in armored pressure suits and helmets, she couldn't tell what race or type they were, only that they were armed, not in the ship's pretty security uniforms, and swirled about with the dark energies she associated with pirates. They came out of a maintenance closet, and started down the corridor away from Cassie and her charge. To her surprise, it was not Hanjin that gave them away, as he became even more silent behind her.

It was the snap-_hiss_ of her light-saber igniting, surprising her almost as much as them, which drew their attention. The green blade flashed up between her and them as they turned, and she charged. Both fired before she covered the distance, one shot going wide, the other bouncing off her light-saber as she twirled it before her. The chaotic swirl of light preceded her, the blade moving so fast it seemed to flicker through various positions around her. The two boarders were as confused by the light-saber's rapid motion, and the suddenness of the attack.

Her rapid assault drove the two against each other. One managed a second shot, as she cut down his partner, but the shot deflected off her blade before she sliced his rifle in half. He followed his partner momentarily, and she shut off her light-saber before she even finished the stroke. For a moment, she could only stand there, surprised by her own ferocity.

Hanjin brought her back to reality, pushing past her, said, "Okay, _now_ I believe you're a Jedi." He grabbed the intact rifle from one pirate, and continued, "Still, I'm surprised. Aren't you guys supposed to be all chivalrous and friendly, asking for surrender and whatnot?"

"We are," Cassie answered, shaking off the last of her surprise, "but I don't like pirates. Personal reasons. Let's keep moving."

She stepped past the bodies, putting them from her mind for the moment. Later, she would have time to analyze the whole scenario, and determine why she hadn't sought a safer course. Jedi or not, one miscalculation on her part, and one good shot could have ruined her entire mission, and it was not like her to simply attack, even with pirates.

By the time they reached the ventilation cross-over, she had steadied herself back down. She was calm enough, even, to avoid the temptation to simply cut her way into the shaft. Rather, she took a little extra time, with Hanjin fidgeting beside her, to remove the locking pins with her pocket multi-tool, and once they were in the ventilation ducts, the pirates' bodies with them, she replaced the grillwork and spent even more time, and precious personal resources, to set all four pins back in place, floating them on the force until they were seated firmly enough to pass casual inspection.

The ventilation tunnel was small, cramped, and unlit. For Cassie, they were a reminder of her childhood, on a world she never bothered learning the name of, living the life of a nameless orphan. For Hanjin, with his larger size and more comfortable upbringing, they were apparently much worse. She could sense his discomfort and nervous tension easily, the entire distance, and was forced to block the shaft to prevent him from lunging out the grill when they finally reached the hanger.

"Hold on a minute," she ordered. She looked him over, wishing Master Lorus had been able to teach her more of how to calm others with the Force, before his death. "There will be pirates in the hanger bay, unless this bunch is terminally stupid. Possible, but not likely. The transition wasn't rough enough for an artificial gravity-well generator to have dragged the _Venture _out of hyper, which means someone high up in the crew played some games with her navicomp. That means skilled, experienced, and patient pirates. Thorough pirates."

"Probably not pirates," Hanjin countered. "Even if they're not after me, they have to be after something specific aboard this ship. The Indrallian Cartel has always made a point of how safe their liners are, partly because they have a habit of paying ridiculously large bounties on anyone who attacks one. These guys are playing with fire, even if they kill the whole crew and all the passengers. Not something most pirates go in for, I shouldn't think."

"Bright boy," Cassie replied, "and they are after you. A feeling, but a strong one. So, there'll be guards on the hanger deck. Probably at each hatch and, given how crowded it was, wandering about. They may settle for security droids, but don't bet on it. So, you are going to wait here, Prince, for my signal. I'm going to go out, take a look, and see if I can get Ace to spin up the _Dancer_. You don't come out until I physically come and get you."

Hanjin was affronted, obviously, "but I can help. I'm no marksman, but I'm a good enough shot for this scum."

"And I'm not going out there to fight. It's a good way to get both of us killed. Now stay here until I come to get you."

He looked rebellious, but nodded, "Yes ma'am."

She considered continuing, but settled for nodding. Here, she didn't have the option of removing the locking pins, they were outside the grill, and she didn't have enough reserves to exert the force necessary to remove them solely with the Force. So she opted for her light-saber, this time. She scanned, as best she could, the area near the grate, looking for observers. As near as she could tell, the closest hatch was thirty meters to her left, and there was a fair sized personal shuttle parked just in front of the grate. After a few moments she decided it was enough cover, and, using the barest tip of the light-saber, cut the grill away from the duct. It almost fell to the deck, but she caught in a mental grip, and set it lightly down.

Once through, she wedged it loosely back in place, then ghosted over beneath the shuttle. It was fair sized, but even she had to crouch to move beneath it, crawling her way to the forward landing strut. There, she found a relatively unobstructed view of the two-hundred meter expanse of the hanger deck, and scanned it.

Hanging from the ceiling were the liner's ostensible defense fighters. Small, one-man craft, they were quite obviously fast, maneuverable, and mostly psychological reassurance. Several more shuttles were parked out of the way against the hanger's walls, all obviously civilian designs, including one flamboyantly decorated private yacht. The blue warning lights of the hanger's atmosphere shields glowed around the two launch windows, one at each side of the hanger, and crouched in front of the starboard window was the ugly bulk of an assault boat. Parked fifty meters to her right, the _Venture_'s port, was the _Spiral Dancer_, with another shuttle between her and it. She could see the hulking mass of the after hull over the sleek civilian craft, and the sight reassured her no end.

It took her another few minutes to sneak her way over to the _Dancer_. There were two pirates patrolling the hanger deck, walking a leisurely course past the various craft, and she took pains to keep out of their sight. They were more interested in comparing the various ships, from the sound and the attention they gave the ships, paying more attention to their prizes than to their jobs. There did not appear to be a guard at the aft hatch, however she could not get a clear view, and reaching the _Dancer_ took her further from the hatch.

She crawled underneath the civilian speed-boat between her and her fighter, and took a few moments to study it. The huge double-wedge of the after hull, holding power-plant, engines, missiles and most of the sensors, towered over her current hiding place, but none of the maintenance hatches were open. The dual-cockpit control module, looking vaguely saurian with its blunt sloping form, was similarly sealed, and plugged in to the base of that she could see the truncated cone of Ace, currently quiescent and immobile.

After reassuring herself that the pirates hadn't touched her fighter, she reached into another pocket and gently tapped a button on the droid-caller she carried. Ace immediately blinked to life, whooping once loudly, then trailing off in a series of indignant beeps, its head spinning this way and that. Cassie hissed, and punched another button, "quiet, you stupid hunk of tin." The droid fell silent, and she pressed herself into the landing strut, making her already small form as compact as possible, willing the pirates not to notice her.

One of the two came over, wandering down the line of parked ships. It took him a pass to determine what the noise had been, and then he shouted down the line, "Oi! 's a droid, up inna junk-heap fighta." Cassie felt a flair of indignation at that, but suppressed it ruthlessly. "What a' we gonna do wi' it?"

The answer was unintelligible, thanks to a combination of accent and distance, but it was clearly a dismissive comment. The pirate near her precious fighter laughed harshly, then strolled back down the flight line, studying the other, more expensive craft with an avaricious eye. Cassie waited until he was out of sight and sound, then relaxed, slightly, and glared at Ace. "_Stupid_ machine," she muttered, then pulled out the remote. She had hoped to be able to whisper commands to it, but now she wasn't willing to risk it, with the guards alerted once. Instead, she took the time to laboriously enter the commands via the remote, ordering the droid to bring the ship's internal systems on-line, and pre-light the engines.

While the droid took care of those processes, she slipped back to the grill. It was a moment's work to get herself back in the relative safety of the air duct. To her surprise, Hanjin was still crouched where she had left him. "Good," she whispered. "There are two guards, but they're more interested in looking over their potential loot than standing guard."

"What was that siren?"

Cassie grimaced, "My idiot droid. I keep trying to program it to wake up silently, but it persists in announcing itself. It's getting the ship warmed up now, but I'm going to have to disconnect the umbilicals myself, and I don't want to spin up the engines until we're safely aboard. Now, the trick is going to be getting you there and into the front seat without anyone noticing. Don't worry, you won't break anything, the controls up there are disabled. I've had occasion to carry dangerous types aboard, and the _Dancer_ doesn't have a cargo bay anymore. She's third ship down the line, to your right as you exit the vent. I'll go first, check the area again, then you come out and head for the ship while I keep watch. Stay between the shuttles and the bulkhead, stay down. _Don't_ try to climb aboard. Ace'll scream bloody murder, and that'll blow our secrecy."

"Got it. Right side out of the grate, two ship's down, wait for you before I touch anything."

Cassie nodded, then turned and left the duct again. A quick, crouched scan showed her no one in the area, and she waved Hanjin forward. He came out, noisier than she, but credibly quiet. He went to replace the grate, but she tapped his shoulder and shook her head, so he set it down again, quietly, and moved out. Cassie, for her part, checked the area she could see again, then followed.

The ladder built into the back of the _Dancer_ was, like its twin on the port fore side, unusual, in a cramped star fighter, but one of the small features which she loved about her fighter. At eight meters, the two engine pods were too tall for anyone to perform ground-maintenance, yet the ladders allowed her access to the whole ship fairly easily. Now, she used the aft ladder to climb up and over, hidden from view of anyone on the deck by the bulk of the fighter's port-side pod. Once there, she whispered a few quick commands to Ace before returning to the _Venture_'s deck.

"Right, Ace'll let you past," she whispered to Hanjin. "Crawl along the top of the ship, it'll hide you from view. Stay to the right. There's a ledge along the turn of the cockpit hull. That'll get you to the hatch. Get in, climb into the front seat, make yourself as small and still as possible, and wait for me."

Hanjin nodded, and she ducked under the fighter while he started climbing. The one problem with maintaining the Gunstar was the sheer number of umbilical attachments. It was a big ship, with a bigger ship's appetite, and the access panels and ports were inconveniently far apart. Fortunately, she was small enough to maneuver under the ship without much trouble. It still took her several minutes to disengage all the umbilicals without nosily dropping the connector-heads.

Finally, she slipped out behind the _Dancer_, climbed over the top, and took a moment to check the deck again. The two guards she had spotted before were still at the far end, now standing on a shuttle to inspect the _Venture_'s fighters. They were more impressed with them than she was, judging by the expansive gestures and nodding heads. Satisfied that they weren't paying any attention, she crawled down the ship and found the hatch open and waiting.

She swung in, landing in the over-sized acceleration couch with a thud, and her eyes ran over the status read-outs while she reached behind her for the helmet racked there. "Hanjin," she said, "there should be a helmet behind your seat."

"Already got it," he answered, sounding rather more stressed than he had a moment ago, "Nothing's on, though!"

_Idiot_, she thought to herself. "I told you, the controls up there are disabled. Put the helmet on, and stay down. The _Dancer_'s armored to a fair-thee-well, but you can still get flash-blinded." She was stabbing buttons while she talked, and behind her the shrill whine of the ion engines and repulsor-lift systems began spiraling up, while the hatch sealed beside her with a soft whuff of displaced air. "Strap in, too. Thing's are going to get interesting, now," she finished under her breath, "unless the Force is really against you."

Ace had brought most of the systems on-line, but they still required pilot interface to do anything other than idle, an old fashioned approach she approved of. She pulled the monocle atop her helmet down, centered its cross-hairs on the small one painted on the starboard frame of the cockpit, and calibrated the gun sight. While she was doing that, her free hand flew over the control panel, and the _Spiral Dancer_ rose slightly.

She heard a shout, through the external pickups, and spun her head to look. The two 'guards' were now running down the flight deck, blasters drawn. A quick mental calculation, and she grinned. _My Baby's waking up, _she thought to herself,_ and her guns_ _should be hot just about_...

Before she finished the thought, the belly-turret beneath her whined to life. The twin cannons dropped into ready, and then the entire assembly spun, viper-quick, to bear with her monocle, right on the lead pirate. She didn't even notice the ready chime, but her finger tightened on the trigger, and the hanger was lit by green back-scatter as the dual-cannon went to full-auto.

She felt the ship rise on its repulsor-lift a moment later, and that indefinable sense of utter freedom she loved came with the motion. Light touches on the controls slid the _Dancer_ forward, and spun it horizontally to face the pirate assault boat, almost as quickly as the turret had moved. As she had half-expected, it was manned and ready, and someone over there was more serious than the two 'patrolling' the deck. But they were still moving with the slowed reactions of surprise, and her laser lit up the assault-boat's cockpit.

As the _Dancer_'s bow came around, the sensors in the four missiles readied in their tubes caught sight of a hostile target, and the rapid sound of their tracking system sounded in Cassie's ear. She ignored it and, as soon as the bow was roughly in-line, her thumb hit and held the upper trigger. Four concussion missiles spat from their tubes at the wing-roots in a ripple-fire, backlighting the cockpit brightly enough to trigger its auto-polarizing feature.

She didn't wait for the impacts, either. While her right hand dealt with the missiles, her left latched onto the quad-throttles, punched the activation for full baffles, and rammed the throttles to the stops. The last missile cleared the tube and Cassie grunted in reaction as a horse kicked her in the chest. Three gravities of acceleration slammed her forward against her harness, and behind her she heard a strangled cry as Hanjin, unprepared and untrained for the sudden maneuver, was slammed about by the same forces.

She watched, as the _Spiral Dancer_ screamed backwards out the _Gallant Venture_'s port hanger bay, and saw three of the four missiles strike the assault boat. Its shields were not up, but it was designed for heavy combat, to take and absorb damage. The small warheads on her missiles, adequate for fighters, were insufficient to destroy the assault boat outright. However, the cumulative blast picked up the massive ship, and blasted it out the starboard hanger, holed and out of control, and as thoroughly out of the fight as she could have wished for.

The _Spiral_ _Dancer_ shot away from the _Gallant Venture_ for a few seconds, Cassie relying on surprise and the raw power of the engines to get clear of ship. Then she flipped the fighter end for end, releasing the baffles at the same time. The sudden changes in acceleration caused the ship to shake and slide for a second, but she anticipated the changes with the skill of practice and natural talent, riding the ragged edge of controlled flight. The fighter settled back down on a straight course, and she immediately had to begin evasive maneuvers again, as a hail of weapons-fire came her way.

A frantic beeping from Ace caught a fragment of her attention as she maneuvered, and she snapped back, "Yes, Ace, I am _fully_ aware of the heavy cruiser at two klicks! You just concentrate on plotting me a hyper jump!"

She jinked the _Dancer_ through a sliding 'S' turn, noting the pair of fighters now trying to close with her. Again, part of her attention remained on Ace's screen, which came rapidly on the heels of her comment. She grinned at the droid's comment, and snarled back, "_No_, you blood-thirsty chunk of plastic, we are _not_ going to attack the massively armed capitol ship."

Ace's reply was overshadowed by a strangled voice ahead of her, "Then why are we heading right towards it!"

The cruiser was, indeed, almost directly ahead of the fighter. Another part of her fractured attention was absorbed cataloguing its identifying features, especially the paint scheme and symbols. Mostly, however, she was trying to anticipate and avoid its guns. Another part of her mind was busy balancing the various power levels in the ship, trying to bring her shields up faster without loosing thrust in the engines. Yet more of her attention was taken by the two pairs of fighters maneuvering to intercept. So the only answer she could come up with was one of her Master's favorite sayings, one she had long ago made her motto, "Ride the Whirlwind, and make its essence your own."

Then she was too busy to pay attention to Hanjin any longer. The _Dancer_ was close enough now, that the cruiser was trying to hit her with a tractor beam, and she barely avoided the first. A flash of inspiration, a touch of outside guidance, and she set the fighter spinning about its long axis, aimed right for the cruiser's bridge. She held it there, pouring on the full power of four massive engines, the broke to the side at the last possible second, wrenching the fighter around in a hard climbing turn. No longer spinning, she kept the cruiser beneath her and raced down its length, firing every laser she had into the massively armored warship, to add to the general confusion.

The _Dancer_ screamed past the cruiser's quiescent engines, barreling out into open space. Fire slackened as the majority of its guns lost bore, and the raw power of the engines opened the range to the fighters. Seconds later, Ace flashed up a valid jump, and Cassie lunged forward to pull the hyper throttles, without even looking at where it would take them. With a flicker of motion, the heavy fighter vanished into hyperspace, beyond the pirates' reach.


	4. Chapter 4

**Cassie's Tale**

By Daishi Prime

- 4 -

They reached Coruscant a week later, by an untraveled route from a nondescript point in the middle of deep space, so far from any star system not even scientists would have found it interesting. Most of that time was spent in hyper, one short jump after another on any course Cassie could randomly pick up on. A lesser portion of time was spent reprogramming the _Dancer_'s transponder codes, which were the only means of identifying the fighter, as Cassie never bothered painting any markings on the craft.

The landing had been nerve-wracking for her, on several levels. The most obvious was also the least dangerous – she knew someone was seriously after her ward now, and figured they had enough resources and chutzpah to make a try for him even on Coruscant. Between the transponder code, the high traffic volume, and the routine landing protocols, Cassie managed to move that particular fear to the back of her mind. She also had a niggling fear of running into a Jedi, but her comments to the spacer back on Minari had not been boasting. She was confident in her ability to talk down any Jedi.

The worst aspect was one she had not fully anticipated – traffic. Cassie was a product of the Outer Rim, where even the most populous worlds had cities and starports. Where no matter how large, no ship could match the bulk of a planet, and no space station could cut her off. Coruscant _was _a city, it _was_ a starport, its entire surface covered in buildings, ringed with vehicles, and studded with landing pads sized for everything from single-man starfighters smaller than hers, to the gargantuan mass of cargo freighters and warships. The sheer number of ships rising and descending, arriving and departing, or simply sitting in orbit, was staggering, more than she had seen in her entire life. For all her confidence, navigating through that tangled morass of metal and ions was a daunting prospect. The insistence of Coruscant's traffic control that they remote pilot her ship down did nothing to help, even after she convinced them that the _Spiral Dancer _couldn't accept such control.

Finally, however, she managed to set down at one of the larger ports, a commercial region in the same hemisphere as Hanjin's Firrenze Academy, but still far enough away to give herself room to maneuver. Once the fighter was settled and powered down, and once she had convinced herself that there were no immediate threats in the area, she made a few calls, had Hanjin make a few more. Between the two of them, they arranged to meet Dilaar Ren, Assistant Head of Security at the Academy, at a small cantina several hundred kilometers from the port.

To Hanjin's delight, Cassie was unwilling to risk his safety on public transportation, even with him 'dressed down' in one of the _Dancer_'s spare work-suits. So they nabbed a taxi-speeder, changing off twice to satisfy her growing paranoia. The traffic in space had been bad, but planet-side, Cassie was finding more problems.

_The Force is generated by and absorbed by all living things,_ she could remember Master Lorus explaining, _unconsciously, continuously, a never-ending cycle. The more living things in an area, the more active the cycle._ That had been but a small part of his teachings, and she had never considered what it could mean. Now, she had first-hand example, and the pressure of it was getting to her. She had always liked the feeling of cities, a sense of vibrancy and energy that was only surpassed when she was flying. Coruscant was so much worse, she could feel the energies of billions of living beings thundering about her, and shutting out the noise was difficult, distracting, enervating. She couldn't believe the members of the Jedi Order lived with this so continuously.

As she had planned, they arrived at the cantina well ahead of time. The buffer gave her a chance to scout the area, leaving Hanjin sitting at a table with his back to a wall. She made two circuits of the cantina itself, one inside, one outside, noting exits and entrances, likely hiding places and probable sniper positions. She did not much care for the place, in general, as there were far too many places for unsavory types to hide, and far too many people for her to keep track of, but the entire planet was like that.

Eventually, she settled down beside Hanjin to wait, plain water in front of each of them. It wasn't long before something started pulling at her senses, a combination of general distortion and a change in the patterns of the crowd. "Keep watch for a minute," she told Hanjin, then leaned back and slipped into a light trance. Two things became clear to her almost immediately. Someone in the area was manipulating the Force, subtly and skillfully. Second, and of more immediate concern, at least four beings in the cantina had specific hostile intentions towards her and her charge.

She snapped out of the trance, blinking quickly to clear her senses, then grabbed Hanjin and hauled him to his feet. "We're leaving."

"But, what about Dilaar?"

"Mister Ren's going to be disappointed, about _something_," she responded, shoving him towards the rear exit. "someone in there's looking to kill you, and we aren't hanging around to find out who."

Now that she had recognized their presence, it was relatively easy for her to sense the motions through the crowd. All four figures had seen them, and were shifting towards the exit as well. One would reach them before she could get Hanjin out of the building, but she had enough time to get him into the short access passage.

"When I stop, keep going," she ordered as the passage door closed behind them, "I'll find you once I delay the pursuit."

She shoved him out of the cantina just as the passage opened again behind her. Spinning back around, she found herself faced with a cloaked and hooded figure, goggles covering its eyes, a cloth over its lower face. Standing sideways, she held up her left hand in a 'stop' gesture. "You do not want to do this, neighbor," she warned, right hand drawing her lightsaber as subtly as possible.

He remained in the door, unmoving, "I'm being paid enough to risk a Jedi. And unlike you, I have friends."

Mentally, she cursed. Outwardly, she replied, "Sorry to hear that." Unlike the sensory or mental techniques, Cassie had always been more than skilled with the purely physical aspects of the Force. With her hand already up as focus, it was simplicity itself to launch the mercenary back into the cantina, suddenly and with enough force to bowl over the two mercenaries right behind him. A flick of her hand, and the door hissed closed, not quite quickly enough to stop a blaster-bolt from coming through, but it was poorly aimed. Another twist of the Force, and the door wrenched in its frame, buying her time.

She did not wait to find out how much, but turned and lunged through the outer door after Hanjin. He was down the alley/hall outside and around a corner, crouched where it let out onto the street, watching the traffic. She slid up on the opposite side of the opening, and checked outside herself.

"That's, an Academy speeder," he said, pointing to a large vehicle hovering at the landing platform in front of the cantina. "But those aren't the Academy's guards."

"Recognize Ren?"

There was an odd note to Hanjin's voice, and he pulled a little further behind the crate he was behind. "He's the one standing to the side, blue and white outfit."

"Why aren't you out there saying hello?"

Hanjin grunted. "I may enjoy a good time as much as any guy, but I'm not an idiot. Those aren't Academy guards. And Dilaar Ren is _not_ entitled to that uniform. Only the Academy Master At Arms is, and I don't remember Dilaar challenging for the post, let alone succeeding. It would've been all over the hypercomms, I'd have heard within hours of the challenge, let alone a victory. And I don't think he could have beaten Master Tydus,either - no one could beat an Anx master of Teras Kaasi. 'Cept maybe a Jedi."

Cassie nodded, "Then we're leaving by other means. Come on."

She turned and started back down the alley, heading down the continuation of the alley behind the cantina. They reached the corner and she glanced around it quickly, finding both ways empty. She started down the alley, away from the cantina, already scanning it for another turn or door she could use to get her ward into cover.

They were fifty meters down when The Force brought her warning. She spun in place, left hand grabbing Hanjin by the collar and throwing him to the floor, while her right hand whipped up her lightsaber. A blaster-bolt bounced off the lightsaber, striking the overhead metal with a crack of vaporized metal, while more whined past in the narrow confines.

Hanjin, surprised or not at his sudden landing, rolled onto his back and produced a pistol she hadn't suspected he had. It was small, a fancy hold-out, but started returning fire with a steady, metronome-like rate of fire. With that as cover, she completed her spin, lunged up the alley and sliced open a door-lock. "Here!" she shouted, pulling Hanjin along the floor with the Force. To her surprise, he didn't panic but continued shooting until he was at the door. She stepped over him, lightsaber flashing to deflect bolt after bolt when his pistol fell silent, then dodged into the door after him.

Hanjin hadn't waited for her. The door let into some sort of office space, and he simply ran through it, ignoring the surprised shouts of the office's inhabitants. Cassie came through on his heels, closing down the lightsaber as she ran to avoid accidentally hitting a bystander, and they burst out the front of the office into a main thoroughfare.

Cassie took a fast glance around as Hanjin tried to hail a taxi, and shouted, "Cross!" She pointed to a facing alley, and when the moment felt right, bolted into traffic, dragging the noble with her. Horns blared, engines screamed at sudden stress, and she thought she heard a distinctly un-musical crash, but she ignored it all to reach that alley.

They ran into the poorly lit tunnel, and she took the first turn that came to hand, running flat-out for the far end. She was almost there when someone stepped into the tunnel. In the reflected street lights, she saw a bald human head, a face half hidden behind wrap-around sunglass, and a too-familiar tattoo. Irritated by the inexplicable reappearance of this particular bad penny, she snapped on her lightsaber and charged. The figure flinched back a step, then froze as her lightsaber swept past his neck in fast lunge.

For a moment, the two of them stood there, him frozen with his hands extended away from his sides, she extended in a lunge, her lightsaber centimeters from his unprotected throat. She broke the silence, snarling at him, "Who are you, pirate, and who's paying you to follow me?"

His eyebrows rose slightly, "Is it compatible with the Jedi Code to threaten an unarmed man?"

"You've been there twice now when someone tried to kill my ward. The Code's prohibition on needless killing is the only reason you're still alive to be questioned. Answer me!"

"Here is not the place, padawan," he said, "as your pursuers close in on you. However, I believe this should provide you some minor reassurance." She felt the Force shift and change, felt it start with him, and couldn't help glancing down as his cloak fell away to reveal a heavy hand-torch strapped to his leg. It came away with a click, flipped through the air to a safe distance, and ignited into a lightsaber, the blue glow contrasting with the light shed by her own.

She could only stare at it in shock for a few seconds. Hanjin prodding her shoulder brought her back to herself, and she shut down her own blade with a grunt. "You should've told me that sooner, Jedi," she muttered. She brushed past him, turning down the new alley away from the street. "Come on, Hanjin, we'll loose the pursuit down here."

"I have a faster method available, padawan," the newly identified Jedi offered, retrieving his own lightsaber.

"I don't think so."

"Probably a good idea," Hanjin countered, in the alley now but leaning back around the corner to watch for pursuit. "seconds count, and..."

"Fine, go," Cassie agreed, feeling the shift in approaching malice. "I've got rear guard. Hanjin, he tries _anything _weird, shoot him in the back. I don't like the feel of this guy."

The Jedi smiled slightly and bowed, seeming to accept her threat without note, then turned back towards the street. He led them into a building, wherein they found a small, non-descript speeder. Over his protests, Cassie pushed Hanjin into the cramped rear, and settled into the passenger seat herself, power-down lightsaber sitting in her lap, while the still unidentified Jedi brought the craft out of standby, and slid out of the garage. A few moments later they were well away, shifting through Coruscant's unending traffic.

"My name," the Jedi said, breaking the silence first, "is Tenar Ressal, a Miralukan. I hold the rank of Knight in the Jedi Order. Despite your impression of me, Jedi Lorus, my intentions towards you have never been hostile. Your own senses are quite finely honed in that area, and it would take a more powerful Jedi than I to hide any hostility I might feel towards you, or your companion."

Cassie grunted, then replied, "Best bounty-hunters in the galaxy don't feel anything for their targets, Jedi. What were you doing on Minari?"

He sighed slightly, then explained, "Despite what you told me there, the Jedi Order is quite interested in you. We began hearing rumors of an unknown Jedi in the Outer Rim some two years ago. Being a freshly minted Knight with applicable skills, I was sent to investigate. At the time, it was assumed that you were merely an impersonator, at best a self-taught dabbler who had come by her lightsaber through nefarious means."

"I built this lightsaber with my own hands," Cassie muttered, rolling the device in her hands, remembering. It was a simple design, a basic housing, minimal circuitry and no decoration. Like her fighter, like her appearance, like her life - nothing beyond what she needed to get the job done. "Per my Master's instructions, fulfilling his last wish, and claiming the rank of Jedi Knight for myself."

"Fulfilling one of the traditional tests," he agreed. "As I said, that was the Order's impression at the time. I learned several things very quickly, however. The first was that you are a very difficult woman to track over any great distance. You are far more... mobile... than most, worse even than the tramp freighters. Additionally, you have a habit of inspiring loyalty in the strangest people, and initially I could find no one willing to speak of you save in the most general terms. Until I ran into a pirate you brought in to Naboo, and got an earful. Finally, I also discovered the name you use, and it matched the records of one Yrthan Lorus, a Zabrak who achieved his mastery some thirty years ago, and made a specialty of the Outer Rim. He had come no closer to Coruscant than the Mid Rim in fifteen years, and the Order's only record of him in the last ten years was notification of his death at the hands of pirates.

"It was simple enough, in the Outer Rim itself, to find records of him in that time, including visual records and statements noting the presence of a young human female apprentice." He grinned, "Universally described as, 'short, waif-like, and possessed of inhuman reaction time.' After discovering that, it merely remained to confirm that you were his last padawan, which task required meeting you. That, alas, proved impossible until, while investigating the latest report of one of your captures, I stopped in at a small port-side cantina before taking ship for Coruscant once more."

"So what were you doing on the _Gallant Venture_?"

"Meeting you convinced me you were a Jedi, it is obvious in your stance, your attitude, and your aura. However, I wanted to know more, how complete your training had been, and how well you had learned it. I was somewhat disappointed when you abandoned an entire shipload of civilians to a pirate attack, but your escape proved more efficacious than you may realize. The pirates attempted to pursue you into hyper and hold the ship at the same time, a division of resources which lost them both targets. After that, I merely proceeded to Coruscant as quickly as possible, and began monitoring the traffic nets for the arrival of any Gunstar_-_class starfighters. From there, tracking you through the Force was simple enough."

"Never heard of that," Cassie muttered, "tracking another Jedi using the Force. Didn't think it was possible, without them using the Force at the time."

"Like I said, I have certain skills which are quite useful in investigations. I am something of an oddity in the Order, as I rarely display my membership openly. I investigate things, generally quietly, and report back for others to take action, should it prove necessary. Your display in the cantina today was much more impressive. Well controlled, both in your self and in your actions, you reacted quickly and intelligently to the appearance of danger, and manged to extricate yourself and your companion from the scene without seriously harming anyone."

"Never been one to fight inside. I'm a pilot, not a gun-bunny. Why aren't we headed back to my ship?"

"The Temple will be much safer..."

"Like hell we're going to the Temple. Whoever's after Hanjin has money, power, and the will to use both. They know I'm a Jedi, and will be monitoring the Temple."

"They will also, no doubt, be monitoring your ship. However they discovered your presence in the cantina, they will now know that you are on Coruscant. Not too many Gunstars come here, and they will find it much easier to do you and your companion harm at your fighter than in the Temple."

Cassie grinned, "I told you, Jedi, I'm a pilot. No one's going to 'do me harm' when the _Dancer_'s near to hand. If you don't want to go, fine, just drop us off right now, and I'll arrange separate transport."

For the first time, Hanjin spoke, "I'd listen to her, Jedi. She may be nuts, but she's also proven very good at this so far."

"So be it," Tenar agreed, turning the air-speeder into another traffic pattern.

Several hours later found the three of them clustered around the Dancer's aft end, Tenar's speeder pulled in beside the fighter. Cassie checked the area around the ship, then set Ace to monitoring the ship's sensors for anything remotely hostile. While Coruscant's general traffic made it difficult, she chose to limit his scanning range to the reach of the Dancer's own guns, which cut down on the false alarms.

While she did that, Hanjin had apparently been discussing the situation with Tenar. When she rejoined them, they were in the middle of a mild argument of some sort.

"Look, I know I can trust him, because I know him," Hanjin argued.

"Anyone can be bought, young Prince," Tenar countered, "and the Hutts have the resources to buy anyone. If they have gone so far as to suborn the head of your Academy's security, they will not hesitate to buy your friends, as well."

"Not Maikan. His family is so tight with the Jedi, most people think they _are _Jedi. Maikan's looking at the Altarrian Rangers, which means he keeps his nose as clean as possible. For a student, anyway. Besides, he's a friend."

Cassie joined in by dropping from the Dancer's back to the tarmac, converting the crouch of landing to a slumped seat. "Find that hard to believe, you having friends, Hanjin. Gimme something more concrete."

Tenar gave her a mildly disapproving look, but Hanjin just grinned. "Fine, I owe him a beer."

Tenar's look transferred to the prince. "A beer?"

Cassie laughed, "A beer. Good enough for me. Bloody students."

"I don't understand," Tenar commented, "How is a single beer going to influence a young student in the face of all the Hutts can and will offer?"

"It's a kid thing," Cassie replied, "I know, because I spend all my time out here," she gestured around vaguely, "in the real world. No student gives a flip about who owes them a drink, except their best friends. It's a challenge thing, seeing who can come out ahead without actually risking the friendship. Not always beers, but you get the picture, yes? Hanjin wants to contact this guy, I'm guessing? I say, why not? If Hanjin owes him a beer, he'll want to collect. What's it about, anyhow?"

Hanjin turned to her, interrupting and ignoring Tenar's explanation, "I still need to get to the Academy. Despite the Jedi's concerns, the Hutts won't have that much pull at the Academy, too many other people are leery of just this sort of situation, so screening's incredibly tight. Ren's gotta be planning on being gone in the next couple of days, or the Academy's auditors'll be all over him. Even if the Hutts just removed Master Tydus for him to take the position of Master At Arms, that'll still be investigated. If I can get on campus, I can get in touch with the Headmaster. A student bringing this sort of story, especially right at start of term, will have the whole place locked down tighter than the Jedi Temple. _No one _will get in or out, and the Headmaster will keep me and Ren as far away from each other as possible. With the attention from other families, the Hutts won't be able to do anything. I just have to get on campus and talk to the Headmaster."

"And this Maikan can get us on campus? Without alerting the security teams?"

"Yeah, sure. Easy as breathing."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause he did it once before. There's a way in, but you have to have someone already inside to pull it off. And it can't be set up in advance, they have to be waiting at just the right place at exactly the right time. Maikan can be there, I just have to let him know."

Cassie thought it over, for a few seconds, then nodded. "Fine, we'll go for it. Get on the comms, contact Maikan. Be as subtle as you can, right? His line'll be tapped."

"I know that!"

"Once he's on board, tell me what else we'll need. Comm's in the Dancer." Hanjin scrambled up the ladder and forward, leaving Cassie alone with Tenar. She cocked her head at him, and asked, "So, why are you still hanging around?"

Tenar mirrored her look. "There is an injustice, a relative innocent in danger for things he did not do. I would be remiss as a Jedi Knight if I did not attempt to rectify the situation. This plan of his is foolhardy, however. I am familiar with the Academy, in a general way, and he is quite correct about their reaction to his story. I just do not believe he will be able to enter the Academy undetected."

"That's why I'll be going with him."

"_We_ will be going with him."

Cassie shook her head, "Uh uh, no way, spacer. You've been dogging my heels long enough. I'm grateful for the assist earlier, but this is my mission, and I don't do groups. Hanjin and I will make our way in without you."

"Foolish of you, to turn down assistance."

"Who says I'm turning down assistance?" She grinned at the surprised look that flashed on his face before he regained control. "I just don't want you going in with us. Didn't say anything about you not going in."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well now, that's an interesting question, Jedi. Just how good are you at appearing to be something you're not?"


	5. Chapter 5

Cassie's Tale

- 5 -

It took Hanjin only a few hours to make the arrangements with his friend, while Tenar gave Cassie a few pointers on how to deal with Coruscant and its unique effect on Jedi. After that, they had to rush to get into position in time. Tenar dropped the two of them at a fair-sized business several hundred kilometers from the school, and a quick exchange of credits had them inside, escorted by one of the factory's lower-level employees.

Ignoring the cold and damp was simple enough for Cassie, just a matter of will. The stench was something else entirely. "The transport better be here soon," Cassie muttered to Hanjin as they moved through the factory to the loading docks, "if I didn't have my pride, I'd be puking my guts up right now."

He grinned, "Never thought about where dinner comes from, eh?"

"Never cared to," Cassie replied.

A few moments later, their escort brought them to the last chamber before the loading docks. "These are the ones," he said, pointing at a pair of long, narrow stasis-crates, "last two canisters for the Firrenze Academy. They've been rigged to show active, without being active, and there's a re-breather unit in each." While Hanjin climbed into one immediately, Cassie took a minute to suspiciously examine the outside. When she had heard the exact method Hanjin had in mind, she had almost refused. He had insisted, however, and she had finally agreed when he admitted his friend owned the business. "Come on, come on," the worker hurried her, "the droid-lorry'll be here in a couple minutes, you have to be racked with the rest before then."

"Fine, fine," Cassie muttered, climbing into box and steadfastly ignoring its coffin-like qualities. The worker closed it over her, and she heard the lid huff slightly as it seated and sealed.

The canister was roomy enough, designed to carry large amounts of fresh-processed meat. To her surprise, there wasn't much smell in the chamber, just the flat smell of plastic and canned air. The slight jostling as the canister was lifted on counter-grav and loaded into the droid-truck was barely noticeable.

The trip was interminably long, and Cassie's mind couldn't help portraying all sorts of mishaps and betrayals. She had thought the confines wouldn't bother her, given that she spent most of her life in close quarters, but it wasn't claustrophobia, but loss of control that bothered her. Only the fact that, through the Force, she could keep a sense of what was outside kept her from loosing it.

There were any number of holes in this plan, the most obvious being Hanjin's friend. After that, what if the security scans changed, occurring after unloading instead of on being moved into the academy's freezers? What if the droid malfunctioned? What if the Tenar moved too soon, or too late, or simply turned them in to the Academy?

Finally, the slight jostling and swaying of the canister stopped. There was a slight clank, as it was placed on the ground, and then nothing. For a few minutes, the silence had her fiddling with her lightsaber, debating lighting it up. Then the Force shifted, and she felt someone moving outside the canister, a live person. He paused, a few meters away from her, next to where she could sense Hanjin, and released the Prince. A minute later, the two boys let her out as well.

As the lid swung up, she spun upright, twisting her legs beneath her and heaving it open completely. She decided to ignore the crashing sound as it slammed into something behind her. She stood there for a second, simply breathing and relishing the fact that she was free to move again, then turned to glare at Hanjin. "Not a word, Prince," she muttered.

He shook his head, face level, but she could tell he was amused by her reaction. The Bothan standing behind him merely looked confused. "Didn't say a thing," Hanjin answered, stepping back to give her room to get down.

She jumped down, then gave him a quizzical look, "Here to the Headmaster's office, yes?"

"Yep. How's it look, Maikan?"

The Bothan shook his head. "Good luck, Han. This place is locked down tighter than normal, has been for days. Master Ren started instituting new security measures as soon as he was declared Master at Arms. There are cameras in all the hallways now, not just the public ones, and more guards than normal. He says it's because threats have been made against several of the students. Said someone kidnapped you and tried to ransom you to the school. The only reason I could get you in this way is because I 'traded' with one of the first-forms for inspection of incoming cafeteria deliveries today. Wired a loop into the camera," he pointed at a spot on the wall, and Cassie cursed, mentally, at the small innocuous device, almost indistinguishable from a thermal sensor. "Loop won't hold very long, should be going in a minute or so."

Hanjin clasped his friend's shoulder. "Thanks, man. I owe you big for this."

Maikan grinned, "You already owed me big. Now I want your first-born, cheapskate."

"Yeah, you'll have to fight my father for him."

"Come on," Cassie muttered, moving to the door. "If there are cameras, we're going to have to move faster than I expected. I can't believe there aren't service corridors." That was rehashing the previous night's arguments, but she was nervous, now.

"There aren't any," Hanjin repeated, walking past her nonchalantly. "We're supposed to look after ourselves, here. The only 'servants' are administration staff, here to support the teachers and masters, and make sure we don't poison each other with our cooking. Mostly droids, programmed to ignore anyone not wearing a Staff Aiguillette. The rest make it a point of making our lives more difficult. Part of the whole 'toughening regime' the Headmaster likes to brag about. As to what I'm doing, I'm going to the Headmaster's office, of course."

"Ren'll never let us reach it."

"Of course not," Hanjin agreed, just as he had last night, waving cheerily to the first camera he could see, "he'll send a couple guards to 'escort us to safety', and when I resist, he'll send more. But he'll have a hard time explaining why he's doing that, for one cadet and one intruder."

Cassie moved in front of him, pushing her senses to try and detect anyone and everyone. "You're going to get your fool head shot off, damn it."

"You got me to the Academy, Cassie, you're not officially responsible for me anymore."

She stopped, stiff-arming him to a halt, and stared down the hallway. "Officialdom's never been real high on my list of concerns, kid. There are four men coming down that cross-hall at a run." She shoved him into an embrasure in the wall, "stay there a minute."

He sighed, but stayed where he was. He started to draw his hold-out, until Cassie slapped his hand and glared at him. "I'll handle this. You start shooting your school's guards, they'll hang you out to dry whatever the provocation."

Time for argument ended as four men in Academy uniforms, blaster-pistols drawn, ran around the corner. The following pair stopped there, taking up covering positions, while the lead pair continued on, moving to opposite sides of the hall. One, a braided rope around his shoulder, called out, "You there, girl! Freeze! We are Academy security, you are trespassing on private property. If you resist, we will be forced to fire upon you to ensure our students' safety."

Cassie took a deep breath, closed her eyes momentarily to help her concentration, and reached out to the Force, pulling its energies to her assistance. "Relax, gentlemen," she said softly, pitching her voice to be as non-threatening as possible, "there is no need for violence."

The four blinked at her, the leader especially. "There's... no need for violence," he repeated, still moving closer slowly.

"Stun settings are more than enough intimidate me," she told me gently, and smiled as four thumbs twitched.

"This will all work out fine," Cassie told them, walking closer to them as her hand settled firmly about her lightsaber. It was, as usual, all about timing.

"This will all work out fine," the leader said, "just come with us ma'am, and we'll get this sorted out in..."

Cassie came within a couple of meters, and the one not talking began to reach for the manacles on his belt. She decided that was close enough, and lunged for the would-be restraint-user. Her left hand swept out and up, open palm slapping onto his gun-hand a moment before her fingers slammed closed and twisted. The combined motion of her hand and body shoved his gun towards the ceiling, and him into the wall, locking his arm momentarily. While she allowed her body to handle that through reflex, her attention was focused on her right hand, snapping out and up as fast and precise as she could manage. The blade of her lightsaber kissed the shoulder of the leader's uniform, its green light casting a sickly pallor over his face as it swept by within centimeters, passing through his blaster on the way, leaving a trail of melted plastic and crystal behind.

The two guards shouted from down the hall, but Cassie ignored them. They would hesitate to fire, while she was this close to one of their own, and she took advantage of that hesitation. A kick to the groin disabled the leader, and a twist of her wrist brought his companion back under control. She released him, just long enough to slug him once in the jaw, then grabbed his collar. That left her hand hurting, and his hands free, but stunned him for a moment.

By the time she had the two guards at hand arranged as she wanted, the other two had worked up the courage to open fire. As she had told them, their guns were set for stun, the wide-angle energy pulses filling the hallway. Thanks to the still-standing guard whose collar she held, none of it reached her. The guard grunted as one stun blast hit him, staggering but not going limp, and Cassie smiled to herself.

Moving with someone twice her size, who was trying not to move, was difficult, at best. Under these conditions, she managed with the same expedient she used for pirate prisoners – she picked him up with the Force and floated him down the hall, just in front of her. With that, she charged, trying to reach them before they did something smart, like separate.

Two more bolts lit the hallway as she charged, and this time her shield did go limp. Then she was on the pair, and they hadn't split up. The stunned guard went into one, a ninety-kilo obstacle that was quite effective at tying his compatriot up. Cassie herself went after the other, lunging with her lightsaber at the man's face. He flinched, as the green blade hissed into the plascrete wall behind him, and she grabbed his blaster, again twisting. He had a moment to struggle against her before she disabled him as she had his leader.

She flipped the blaster, grabbed the handle, and verified that it was still on stun. Then she shoved the emitter into the last guard's gut, just as he freed himself from his companion, and fired once. She fire three more blasts, one into the guard she'd taken the gun from, and two more back down the hall at the leader, who was just regaining his feet. Then she pocketed the pistol, shut down her lightsaber, and waved Hanjin forward, cataloguing her surroundings again.

An alarm was going off, and she could vaguely hear and sense a large number of people moving about. None were in sight down any of the four hallways she could see into, so for the moment she ignored them. "Hanjin, which way to the Headmaster's office? Forget the 'back way' crap we worked out last night, just gimme the fastest route possible."

"That way," he said, waving back down the hall they guards had come down. "Turn left at the end, thirty or forty meters to the Academy's main entrance."

"Big difference between those numbers."

"Hey, I don't carry a measuring laser in my pocket between classes, okay? Let's out onto a balcony, first floor above the foyer. Wide stairwell there goes up, ends at the Headmaster's office on the fourth floor."

"New plan," Cassie told him, starting down the hallway at a trot. "We get to the balcony. I take a look around, see where the guards are. If it looks clear, you bolt for the office, I'll draw their fire. Clear?"

"Be better..."

"This isn't a debate club, Hanjin," she muttered. Something ahead was distracting her, something that felt foul in the air, and she had a sinking suspicion what it was. "I'll be fine, you need to get to that office." She skidded to a stop at the corner, and ducked her head around for a quick check, repeating the move to look the other way. The hallway was clear, back into the building, and towards the stairwell, which she could just make out. "It's more like fifty meters, you brat," she muttered.

"Sorry. Like I said..."

"Yeah, yeah. Look, you probably won't be running anywhere, anyway. Something up there is off, and I've got a bad feeling about it. Remember, keep your head down, and if I tell you to, run."

He nodded, "You're the expert. 'Course, now that I'm in, I don't think I can get out again."

She smiled, "No, but you're a trouble-maker, and I bet you're enough of a rabble-rouser to touch off a student revolt, if you have to." She grabbed his arm as he perked up, "_Not yet_, you idiot. You'll just get them hurt, and I still think I can deal with this. Let's go."

She started down the hall, Hanjin darting across to the far side. "Watch our rear," she told him, "I'll keep an eye to the front."

She could feel a gathering of people ahead, and slowed the closer to the stairwell she got. She dropped into a crouch for the last few meters, and came to a complete stop a meter or so before the frame at the end of the hall. She could hear voices now, indistinct through distance and angle. She could feel most of the people nearby concentrated on the first floor beneath her, and the whine of a blaster charging told her exactly who was waiting. _Great, _she thought to herself, _a shooting gallery._ "Stay here," she ordered, then crouched even further, and crept forward. When she was behind the waist-high wall lining the balcony, she slowly and carefully drew the pistol again, lay flat on the ground, and then tossed it over the rail.

Two shots rang out, loud in the stillness, one blasting through the wall uncomfortably close to where she was hiding. The other flashed over it, and she tracked its progress up the open space of the stairwell until it vanished in a coruscating ripple of light at the fourth floor. _Interior deflectors,_ she noted, _no way is Hanjin getting to the office alone._

"Come out, pirate. Surrender now, without harming Prince Hanjin, and the Academy will be merciful." The voice was harsh, and she could feel the hatred and vicious pleasure its owner took in demanding her surrender.

Cassie sighed, as she debated. She could do this fast and dirty, but this was Coruscant, not her usual fringe world. She could try to do this quietly, subtly pretend to surrender and try something later, but Ren, who she had no doubt was the source of the sickening twist she could feel in the Force, would gun her down in an instant to get at his target. Finally, she decided that a combination of the two was the best route, and glared at Hanjin. Pulling on the Force, she sent him his orders, _Stay behind cover, don't come out. You don't move until I physically come and get you. You can't reach the Headmaster's office, and I can't afford a distraction while I deal with this._

When Hanjin nodded, doubt written clear on his features, she dropped her head to the floor again, and called out, "It is not proper, Master At Arms, to fire on a Jedi without cause. I am escorting Prince Hanjin to this Academy, to deliver him to the Headmaster," if his troops had not heard this version, maybe a little doubt would make them hesitate when the time came. While she talked, she slid along the floor, moving closer to the stairs.

"You're no Jedi, pirate," Ren grated, with suppressed laughter. She was surprised, the sound of his voice was more aggravating than the insult. "You're just an overly ambitious girl with a rare toy. Surrender, now. This will be your last chance."

She sighed, rolled upright and stood, her lightsaber in hand. She lit it as she stood, the comforting green light giving her a small boost of confidence as it appeared between her and her opponents. Looking down, she was actually impressed. There were close to fifty guards gathered in the foyer, arranged in a three-deep arc facing the stairs. Standing behind them, in spotless blue and white, was an utterly normal looking human, plain brown hair cut to a fuzz, rugged face and narrow eyes. It was the eyes that finally convinced her Ren was a darksider – she could feel his anger and hatred directed at her, for disrupting his plans, and she could see those same emotions flare in his eyes as their gazes locked.

"You seem to know a lot about me, Ren," she commented, moving slowly to stand in the center of the stairwell as she gathered the Force to her, focusing it inwards now. "Do you know what my ship is named?"

He had been halfway to ordering her shot down, she could see it in the set of his face, when her question cut him off. Curiosity got the better of him, and he replied, "Something about a dance, wasn't it? I'm sure it will increase the sale value when we auction it off."

She snarled at the thought of someone touching her baby, but only for an instant, converting the grimace to a grin. "She's called the _Spiral Dancer_," she told him. "Thing is, my Master gave that name to _me_."

He was still puzzling over that when she leapt. Enhanced by the Force, her leap set her on an arc well clear of the stairs, and she spun as she flew. The guards were fast, recognizing her move as an attack instantly, and they reacted with the speed of highly trained human reflexes, opening fire in a hail of blaster-bolts. But they were still only human, to her preternatural reflexes, enhanced even further by the Force. She had her Master's lightsaber in her left hand, blue compliment to her own blade, before the first trigger was pulled, and her rotation kept both blades whirling about her in a dizzying display that reflected the few blaster-bolts to approach her course.

She hit almost precisely where she had aimed, at the left end of the arc of guards, between the front and middle rows, causing four of the men to lunge backwards as they tried to open the range. They had no chance, for this was Cassie's type of fight, ground or space - up close and personal, her against a horde, and she exploded into the guards like a grenade. She had used this maneuver many times, by now, and the motions were almost automatic. She retained enough control, however, to remember that these were not the pirates she was used to fighting, but guards fulfilling their duty. Her strikes, driven by the Force, directed by her own chaotic view of the universe, hit weapons almost every time, leaving the men behind them as unharmed as possible.

She wasn't perfect. Many of these guards would come away from this fight seriously injured, but none would die, not by her hand.

She tore through the line of guards in a whirl, moving with the dervish speed and unpredictability that had so baffled her master. Uniforms exploded away from her, and she ignored those who passed beyond her reach as dealt with. The guards shifted, those unengaged trying to move away, but she pushed herself harder, driving down the line. None of them could stand against her until she was halfway down, when a pulse of darkness wrenched at her senses, and she rolled away from a flash of white.

She came up in a crouch, her own lightsaber a bar between her and the guards, her master's held straight behind her, both arms at full extension. Ren was standing in front of his troops, a vibro-sword humming in one hand, a smirk on his face. "You're really starting to annoy me," he muttered, raising his sword. "I'll grant, you're good. But you are no where near what I've become."

"Stop right there, Ren!" Cassie didn't look, but Ren, facing the source, did. She didn't recognize the speaker, but Ren's face twisted, and she decided it had to be the Headmaster. "I have been given a most disturbing report, Dilaar Ren, concerning your conduct. I have also been informed, that this young woman was hired to escort Hanjin here, as she claims. She is not a kidnapper, as you claim."

"She is a pirate, Headmaster," Ren answered, just barely managing a respectful tone. "Her accomplices..."

"She has been identified by the boy's father," That almost caused Cassie to look herself, but Ren was still armed, still in position, "and by two members of the Jedi Order. Stand down, Ren, guards. Now! You, Ren, are hereby relieved of your duties, pending investigation by the Academy's Auditors."

The flare of anger was almost painful, this close, as Ren snarled, "You can't do that! I am the Master at Arms of this Academy, by combat! The Guards are mine to command!"

"I am the Headmaster of this Academy, by right of age, experience, skill, and decision of the Board. You work for me, Ren, which means I can relieve you whenever I wish. I cannot remove the title, only the Board can, but I have no doubt they will. Stand down."

Ren looked for a moment as though he would protest further, but finally he spun in place, dropping his sword to his side. The guards relaxed, visibly, and began moving to gather their wounded. Cassie also relaxed, rising from her crouch, shutting off both lightsabers. She heard the whine of the deflector deactivating behind her, and started to turn towards it.

The spike of rage and rush of dark energies caught her by surprise. Turned away, she lunged sideways and tried to spin, but only managed to avoid a direct blow. The pommel of Ren's sword slammed into her cheek, hard enough to send her sprawling, glaze her vision, and cause her to loose her grip on her lightsabers. She felt Ren go by, nothing but darkness and rage, and part of her cringed from him.

Most of her, however, met that rage with purpose. She landed hard, but rolled to her feet again. She was tired, now sore, but the Force was still with her. Ren was barreling up the stairs as she started after him, and part of her mind took note of the two brown-robbed figures, which moved to block him from the Headmaster and King of Feydin. She ignored them, however, and lunged in pursuit. Ren was fast, but so was she. It became a race to see whether his head start would let him outrun Cassie's greater speed.

_At least he doesn't have Master Lorus' speed trick either,_ she thought. Which thought reminded her of another trick, one her master had taught her, though she rarely used it.

Ren reached the first landing, and twisted hard to go after Hanjin. Cassie cut the corner and pushed herself harder with the Force, leaping the rail instead of going for the corner, spinning automatically as she reached out with the Force. She saw Ren, as she spun, turn at the entrance to the hall, vibro-sword flashing around to meet her, and then she found what she was looking for. Light flared over the landing, as both lightsabers landed in her hands and lit moments before Ren's strike, one passing through his vibro-sword, the other through his arm.

Then she crashed into him, physically. Momentum slammed the two of them into the wall, and then to the floor. Ren appeared insensate to pain, twisting to pin her to the floor before slamming his still functional fist into her kidney. The disorientation from the bad landing cost her concentration, and the sudden pain caused her vision to go white again as her back spasmed. Then she heard a blaster shot, and Ren was suddenly dead weight.

Cassie lay there for a moment, catching her breath. Ren shifted, but was unceremoniously dumped. Squatting next to her, pistol dangling negligently from his head, Hanjin gave her a quizzical look. "Does that count as 'physically coming to get me'?"


	6. Epilogue

Cassie's Tale

- Epilogue -

Cassie was half expecting it. It was typical, utterly predictable, despite orders to the contrary. So she moved very carefully, cautiously. Which meant she was only shocked, when her fingers came close to the worn wiring, instead of being electrocuted as she had been once before. Wrenching her hand out of the compartment with a muffled curse she shook it, trying to clear the numbness, and glared along the _Spiral Dancer_'s spine.

"Damn it, Ace! I _told _you to power down Drive Two _completely_! Not to standby, _completely_!"

The droid, perched at the far end of the main hull replacing the control wiring on Drive One, spun his head in place to blink at her, responding with a series of beeps and a rude noise. Cassie glared, debated throwing something at it, then sighed. "Self control," she muttered.

Control or not, she wasn't about to trust the astromech to shut down power now. So she hauled herself to her feet, and walked the length of her fighter's spine. She whacked Ace on the way by, a glancing blow with the palm of her hand, and dropped lightly to the rail around the cockpit. There she stopped, and stared out over the landing field for a moment.

It was one of Coruscant's largest, and not the one she and Hanjin had initially arrived at. After the altercation at the bar, she had left Ace to move the fighter to a port more convenient to the Academy, in case she needed serious firepower. Here, the field was sprawling, but tightly so, covering a vast acreage with a hodgepodge of terminals, towers, landing bays and rail-lines. Ace, pare-programmed with her own preferences for landing spots, had found as open a stretch of ground as possible, which still left her less than ten meters from her nearest neighbor, and no more than twelve from the furthest. Both were starfighters, fortunately, smaller than her own, but it was still closer than she normally preferred.

Now, she could see a speeder moving below Coruscant's bewildering traffic pattern, swinging back and forth over the port. Focusing on the Force, she could sense someone looking, and figured they were looking for her. It was a stretch, at this range, but she managed a sending giving the berth number next to her own.

The speeder approached, settling, and swung around as the pilot looked for a large enough space to land. Cassie watched carefully, then grinned and relaxed as she recognized Tenar's face at the controls. She walked further down the rail, to the nose of her fighter, then dropped to sit on it, as Tenar settled the speeder in front of the fighter. He climbed out, taking his own sweet time, and she could not help chuckling at the sight of him in formal Jedi robes.

"Hey there, Jedi," Cassie called out as he started towards her, "What can I do for you?"

"And a good morning to you, Jedi," he replied, causing her to blink. He had always been slow to refer to her by that title. "I understand you are preparing to leave for the Outer Rim again, yes?"

"Of course," she answered easily, "pirates won't catch themselves, someone's gotta go looking for them."

"You realize, whatever pirates you capture will simply be replaced by more? A region that large, that thinly populated, it's as inevitable as sunrise."

"Yeah, I know," Cassie said, "but it's what I do, and each time I catch a pirate, that's one pirate attack that doesn't happen. Sure, he'll be replaced, but I'll catch that one to, or another. By your argument, we may as well all go sit on mountain-tops and contemplate our navels. We don't, 'cause we're Jedi, Tenar, Jedi Knights. You know, protect the weak, uphold justice, use our powers for good and the light, right?"

He smiled, "I know, Cassie, I know. Just thought I'd make sure you know."

She grimaced at him, "Stop testing me, damn it. I'm getting bored with it, already."

"You will always be tested by other Jedi, Cassie, just as you will always test other Jedi yourself. It is part of how we remain Jedi, and how we learn to be better Jedi." He shrugged, settling his robes, "But, I did not come out here to test you." One hand appeared out of his voluminous robes, "I came to give you this."

She hesitated, then jumped to the pavement and took the small object he was offering. She twirled the small cylinder in her hand for a moment, then pressed the stud at one end. The crystal in that tip flashed, and a holo-matrix appeared. It was a simple one, mono-chromatic green with a distinct waver, but the face it displayed was quite obviously hers. The list of data next to it was also hers, and for a moment she was ready to throw it back at Tenar and demand the source-record be wiped. Then she reached the bottom of the short list of identifying statistics, and all she could do was stare at those four simple words.

Rank: Jedi Knight, Guardian.

"It's a standard Ident Rod, most Jedi carry them. It's proof, to the Republic and anyone else who cares, that you're a Jedi. Each one is hard-coded, next to impossible to crack, so they can't be counterfeited. Much more trustworthy than the ident-cards most outlying systems rely on."

Cassie looked up at him, still struggling with her surprise. "This is from the Order?"

Tenar smiled, "Yes, Cassie, it's from the Order. As far as we are concerned, you are a Jedi, a member of the Order. You're entrance was by an uncommon route, but in the old days it wasn't so uncommon for a traveling Master to take on an apprentice as master Lorus did with you. Master Yorun, my master, was sufficiently impressed with your actions at Firrenze to support my decision to offer you membership. The council agreed, after suitable testimony yesterday."

The shock started to wear off, and Cassie's cunning mind began working again. She glared at Tenar in sudden suspicion, "I'm not tying myself down to the Order, Tenar. I'm not turning into one of those effete snobs who play king-maker and ignore the real people out there."

He chuckled, "No one expects you to. Despite your opinion, most Jedi are not tied to the Order very tightly. We go where we want, do what we want, and in the process improve ourselves and the galaxy. Yes, when the Council asks a particular Jedi to do something, the Jedi in question is expected to do it, but such missions are usually quick affairs. Also, the Council is unlikely to give a Guardian, such as yourself, a roll requiring political subtlety and willingness to compromise. Although, the more missions you undertake for the Council, the more willing they are to part with funds to support your own operations. Running a starfighter in the Rim is expensive, yes?"

"I manage well enough. Jobs like this one, with Hanjin, pay very well."

"How is he, by the way?"

"He's a trouble-maker, licentious and far too cavalier about everything." Cassie smiled at the surprised look on his face, and continued, "Aside from that, he's a good kid, who should prove to be a good man, one of these days. Haven't talked to him since I left the Academy last night. My job was done once he was safe there, so I collected my fee from his father, and bugged out for here. He's got my comm-code, I've got his. If he needs a hand, I'll think about it, and vice versa."

Tenar nodded, whether in understanding, agreement, or acceptance Cassie couldn't tell. "Before you disappear into the Deep again, there are a few questions the Order has concerning Ren. Would you be willing to indulge me by answering them?"

"If I can," Cassie nodded, dropping to sit on the tarmac.

Heedless of his robes, Tenar did the same. "The first was posed to me by Master Yorun. How did you know Ren would go for Hanjin, and not the Headmaster. The Headmaster was the immediate cause of his anger and humiliation. Killing Hanjin at that point could only have resulted in his own death."

Cassie looked at him oddly for a moment, then leaned her head back to look at the sky, gathering her thoughts. "I didn't 'know'," she admitted after a moment, "but I've met his kind before. He was Force-sensitive, you sensed that much, right?" When he nodded, she continued, "There are more like him, out in the Rim. They're usually fighters, at least by the time I run into them, fighters becoming killers. They develop minor Force abilities, and learn by trial and error how to call on it." Tenar hissed slightly, and Cassie grimaced wryly in shared understanding, "Yeah, dangerous at best. Every one of them is a darksider. Makes sense – they're in battle a lot, their first use of the Force is usually in combat, and they're used to letting their emotions run wild. Thing is, they aren't berserkers, not really. They tend to be a bit of the opposite, you know? Crazy fierce and angry in battle, but focused on the objective, almost obsessive. Ren was there to kill Hanjin, nothing more. Killing the Headmaster wouldn't have done much for him except get him killed, the same for going after me. But Hanjin – Ren had been anticipating his death for days, at least, and that was his last chance to finish that hunt."

"I think I understand," Tenar replied, "Ren was focused on his target to the exclusion of all else."

"And couldn't let that target get away."

"Agreed. Your explanation also answered several other questions, such as where Ren received his Force training."

"He probably didn't," Cassie told him. "He just made it up as he went along, probably started on it years ago. Although, I have come across rumors of groups of these guys, or individuals trying to teach what they've learned. Usually they kill each other off, or attract the attention of you paladin-types."

"_We_ 'paladin-types'," Tenar corrected.

Cassie blinked, then grinned at him, "Yeah, guess so."

"One last question then, Jedi."

"Shoot."

"Why didn't you kill him?"

Cassie shook her head, "you never stop, do you? I didn't kill him, because I missed. The combination of that leap, and calling both lightsabers, took almost everything I had left. I intended to kill him." She waved away his incipient advice, and continued, "I had to, to keep my ward safe. I've seen men that focused keep coming after getting both legs shot off. I've seen someone who should have been dead keep herself moving long enough to stuff a grenade into a gun-pit. Someone as focused, as driven and angry as Ren was then, they aren't going to stop for an injury, Tenar. Maybe that's not how the Council would like me to think, but it's what I've seen, and it fits with the Code. If I have to choose between an innocent... relative innocent and a darksider with murder on his mind, I'll kill the darksider every time."

"Actually, I understand exactly what you're saying. So do most Jedi. There are a few, those who adhere to an entirely pacifistic interpretation of the Code, who would not, but... the Code applies to the Jedi, the rest of the galaxy has never demonstrated a willingness to follow it. I would, however, recommend caution. Master Yorun asked me to extend his advice, and I would add my own support to what he says – you still do not have complete control of your temper, Jedi. Not a criticism, just something to work on."

Cassie grunted, "That, I know. It was worse, after Master Lorus died, but I'm still working on it."

"We'll see how you're doing next time you're on Coruscant. Or the next time we run into each other on the Rim."

"You're heading back out, too?"

"Of course. Master Yorun wants to know more about those like Ren, and the Rim seems to be the best bet as to where to find them. Since you've encountered them before, apparently, that presumption appears to be correct. So, I'll do some preliminary research out here and then head out."

"Heh, you get into trouble, leave me out of it. I hate dealing with those guys."

"Sure thing," he said, chuckling, "'course, same thing goes for you and those pirates you're always dragging around. I've no interest being hijacked again."

"Neither do I. You've got my comm-code, obviously."

"And mine is encoded on your ID, as are those of several other Jedi I know, who I think will work well with you." He grinned almost sheepishly, "most of them are younger, like us, and like you prefer not to be on Coruscant."

"Thanks. Look, I've got to get that stupid droid back to work," Cassie said, standing up, "it'll take me a couple of days to get back to the Rim from here."

Tenar rose, stepping back slightly, "I understand. Duty calls, and justice waits for no one." He bowed slightly, "Safe travels, Jedi Lorus, May the Force be with you."

She smiled, remembering the last time she had heard those words, "And with you, Jedi Ressal."


End file.
